Toomey is on the right side on gun purchase checks

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Apr. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Apr. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Apparently neither Pennsylvania's Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, nor his West Virginia colleague Joe Manchin, a Democrat. The National Rifle Association has most other elected officials running with their tails between their legs, yet these two senators are working together on a bill to expand gun-purchaser background checks and other new gun-control measures.

They have kept their focus on accomplishing something after the massacre of 20 children last December at Sandy Hook, even while many other legislators have allowed themselves to be cowed by the NRA.

Toomey co-sponsors bipartisan legislation Manchin is writing to require background checks for all commercial gun sales, including online sales at gun shows and through classified ads. Current law requires background checks only on sales conducted by federally licensed gun dealers.

The public overwhelmingly supports such changes. The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns recently conducted a survey with GOP pollster Frank Luntz that found that 87 percent of respondents — even 74 percent of NRA members — support background checks on anyone buying a gun. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry's trade association, has endorsed background checks on employees of gun dealers.

A groundswell of interest in tightening gun laws emerged after 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot to death 20 children and six adults in a mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The carnage of so many very young children galvanized the nation. Yet support for stronger gun laws gradually ebbed as the gun-sales industry and NRA lobbying went into full gear.

Both Toomey and Manchin have A ratings from the NRA, unimpeachable "credentials" in the gun industry. That ought to help them bring along other legislators otherwise too ... shall we say cowardly? ... to buck the powerful gun lobby by supporting their bill.

Background checks are not enough. A ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines is also warranted, yet it's not part of the Manchin bill.

Still, it's a start. And it might help Toomey, known as one of the Senate's most conservative members, in his next re-election bid in 2016. This is a case where sensible policy and politics go hand in hand: Showing bipartisanship and pragmatism, and standing up to the NRA, will give him credibility in more liberal, Democratic suburbs of the Keystone State.

Whatever his motivation, Toomey is on the right side in this effort to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.